The Death Trilogy (Book 1): The Death: Quarantine Read Online Free Page A

East of Denver International Airport
    The loudspeakers blared out the morning wake up and shattered what little sleep Lori Roberts had gotten. After a night of tossing and turning, she had finally passed out from exhaustion only an hour ago.
    The others who shared the large GP tent with Lori, her husband, David, and their son, Eric, were rustling and preparing for the day ahead, a day that Lori knew would be exactly like the one before and the one before that.
    Tomorrow would mark their fourth month in Camp 13, but celebrations wouldn’t be in order. What had turned into a symbol of hope and survival from The Death now represented despair.
    David, her husband, often joked that Camp 13 was like the roach motel, ‘You can check in, but you can’t check out.’
    And so it was true, when they had arrived almost four months ago, they were happy to be alive and to have a chance at a new life, but that hope soon dashed when the realities of how bad things were for even the government response came into stark relief.
    “Honey, get up. Let’s get some breakfast before the morning assembly,” David said as he put on his shirt.
    Lori rolled over and looked at him, the morning light catching part of his face. “You and Eric go. I’ll meet you at the assembly.”
    “You sure?”
    “Yeah, I’m tired; I want to lay here for a bit.”
    He knelt down beside her and took her hand. He kissed it and said, “Another sleepless night?”
    “I’ve tried everything, but I just lie here, thinking.”
    “Go see the doctor today, have him prescribe something.”
    “No way, I’m not going to stand in a line for eight hours or more.”
    “What else do you have to do? It’s your down week from working parties.”
    “I’ll figure it out. Now go, grab me a packet of peanut butter and crackers,” she said, rubbing his arm.
    “Is Mom okay?” Eric asked, looking down on both of them. He was sixteen and took after his father with his dark brown hair and tall slender build.
    Lori often laughed that the only way she knew he was hers was that she’d seen him come out of her.
    “Okay.” He stood and was about to leave but stopped. “Don’t oversleep.”
    A splash of daylight illuminated the dusty tent as David and Eric exited. She cringed when it hit her as she rolled over. It wasn’t her physical weariness that kept her from getting up but an emotional one. David knew this but kept it to himself.
    As the others finally left the tent she found herself alone, but this loneliness, this feeling of detachment was even present when she was surrounded by the thousands in the camp.
    Lori was an accomplished woman, having been an architect and head partner of an architectural firm before The Death came and wiped it all away. Before, she often reflected and espoused gratitude for the life she had created. Then in an instant it was all gone. She still remembered watching the television reports as the virus began its spread, and thought, like so many, that it was something that would only affect others. How often do people see things and think that they’re just watching others’ misery; no one ever expects it to happen to them. If she could go back and change one thing, it would be to not be so self-absorbed. She wished she had heeded her husband’s gut instinct and not allowed the kids to go to school. However, she thought this was something that was being handled and that in no way would it come crashing into the beautiful little hamlet of Castle Rock, Colorado.
    That simple nearsighted and naïve decision cost her dearly. The once confident woman who had gone into the business world and conquered it, who had the picturesque marriage and perfect little family, was destroyed by the small decision of sending her children to school. Her only daughter, Madeleine, had been a beautiful nine-year-old, with long dark hair and a face that was always graced with a smile. She was happy, and at the tender age of nine had her life planned, even had chosen